Magnolia. Agnita Tennant

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      MAGNOLIA

      A NOVEL

      Here is an extraordinary love story that speaks to the crisis of separation and scorn, love and hate, following the Korean War ceasefire in July 1953. Four years later, Sukey, a graduate with much promise, falls in love with Kwon, a man who confesses to having been a North Korean spy. Although hostilities are over, enmity towards the North is the social norm and deeply entrenched. With anti-spy campaigns, street searches, and arrests of any suspect, citizens are urged to be vigilant and to report on any suspicious goings-on. When Sukey takes on Kwon as her lover, she has little idea of what it will be like to keep an ex-spy hidden away from society, her family and friends. Her world changes overnight…

      Told with extraordinary honesty and immense sensitivity, insight and passion, this is also social history worthy of comparison with some of the nineteenth-century greats. It is historically educational, emotionally brave and a joy to read.

      Cover Illustration:

      Photo courtesy Ticia Norbury

      RENAISSANCE BOOKS

      978-1-898823-18-6

      MAGNOLIA

      Magnolia

      A NOVEL

       by

      Agnita Tennant

      Magnolia: A Novel

      By Agnita Tennant

      First published 2015 by

      RENAISSANCE BOOKS

      PO Box 219

      Folkestone

      Kent CT20 2WP

       www.renaissancebooks.co.uk

       Renaissance Books is an imprint of Global Books Ltd

      ISBN 978-1-898823-18-6

      eISBN 978-1-898823-29-2

      © Agnita Tennant 2015

      All rights reserved. No part of this book may be reprinted or reproduced or utilized in any form or by any electronic, mechanical, or other means, now known or hereafter invented, including photocopying and recording, or in any information storage or retrieval system, without permission in writing from the Publishers.

       British Library Cataloguing in Publication Data

      A catalogue record for this book is available from the British Library

      Typeset in Bembo 12 on 14 by Dataworks.

      Printed and bound in England by CPI Antony Rowe

       Contents

Part I
Chapter 1	Letters
Chapter 2	Fate’s Favourite
Chapter 3	Sisters
Chapter 4	A Chronicle of April
Chapter 5	At the Threshold of a New Era – Memories of a Childhood
Chapter 6	In the Valley on the Dark Side of the Sun (1)
Chapter 7	In the Valley on the Dark Side on the Sun (2)
Chapter 8	In the Valley on the Dark Side on the Sun (3)
Part II
Chapter 9	Confession
Chapter 10	Crime and Punishment
Chapter 11	In Hospital Ward
Chapter 12	A June Diary
Chapter 13	The Rally
Chapter 14	Vicissitude - A Chronicle of Christmas and the New Year
Chapter 15	Living on Borrowed Time
Chapter 16	Departure

       MAGNOLIA

      by

       Ronald Duncan (1978)

      From where these birds

      Which perch upon the bough

      Leafless, but for their white wings

      Of ivory or alabaster

      Now furled, so spruce, so still?

      What dark wind swept them?

      Across which seas?

      Drawn by what instincts?

      Migrating from where to where?

      Or are these not birds, nor flowers,

      But hands in prayer

      Clenched in brief hope

      Wrung with long despair?

      Reprinted courtesy Ronald Duncan Literary Foundation

       PART I

       Chapter 1

       Letters

      I often stayed on late in the office. My colleagues and the caretaker thought I was studying. I liked the quiet hours after a busy day. Sometimes I read but mostly I turned over things in my mind and wrote up my diary even though there were things I could not frankly put down.

      It was going to be my last night. I wrote several letters to various people and went over the names of those whom I would have liked to invite to my wedding had I been